I believe that from the 2013 drivers only Webber, di Resta, Chilton, VDG, Pic and Kovalainen haven’t been confirmed for the 2014 season. FIA could give these drivers a chance to submit their preferences also and announce them only if they later get a seat. Since Webber chose to retire, he most likely won’t submit any. Same goes for di Resta, if he doesn’t want to go to a lower team. And since Chilton, VDG, Pic and Kovalainen were the last four drivers in the championship, their preferences could affect only Kvyat and Magnussen.

And why would FIA do this instead of waiting for Caterham and Marussia to confirm their drivers? Because it’s off-season, testing hasn’t started yet and there’s nothing to talk about. Once the season is about to start, driver numbers will be a lot less interesting.

I rate Schumacher higher than Vettel, but since this is a list about 21st century and Schumacher’s seasons from 1991 to 1999 are thus excluded, Vettel wins slightly. For the same reason Häkkinen isn’t included in this list – his 2000 and 2001 seasons weren’t in my opinion impressive enough for that.

Räikkönen is without a doubt having a slump, but I don’t think we can (based on the evidence available) claim that he’s past his peak. To be honest, I think that until Singapore Räikkönen was having the best season of his career. Coincidentally his slump started at the same time that he made a contract with Ferrari.

I think Räikkönen’s poor performances are down to motivation. Kimi already has a contract so he doesn’t have to prove himself to other teams, he’s leaving his current team so he doesn’t have to fight for his position in a team and he’s not fighting for the championship so his results aren’t that important.

That’s why I don’t think Kimi genuinely has 100 % motivation at the moment. I believe Kimi when he says that he’s doing his best and still wants to win a race this season, but in F1 a driver needs 100 % motivation for great performances and I think he’s only up to 99% at the moment.

At the same time Grosjean probably is feeling very confident, because he’s been driving very well lately and he’s going to have an upper hand against anyone who comes to “his” team next season. That’s why Romain is having excellent performances, which makes Räikkönen’s slump look even worse.

Next season Räikkönen has to secure his position in a new team and show Ferrari that they were wrong to kick him out of the team and Kimi will probably also fight for the championship. That’s why I am (and Ferrari should be) confident that Kimi’s slump will be over by the time he arrives to Maranello.

As I said earlier, he was convinced in May that Kovalainen was going to race for Caterham again and in June he was convinced Räikkönen was going to Red Bull. Of course his job at MTV3 is basically to repeat all kind of rumors and keep people interested in Formula One, so it’s hard to judge him. But at the same time he isn’t very reliable news source in my opinion.

He’s a lot like me in fact – talks much and there is some kind of logic behind everything he says, but he doesn’t have any real inside information and he’s usually wrong. I also thought Kimi was going to Red Bull and that Kovalainen was going to get his race seat back and later on I was convinced Kimi was going to Ferrari, because his Red Bull contract didn’t happen. But I don’t believe lot of people would think my posts bring more credibility to any rumor.

Oskari Saari nailed the Kimi-to-Ferrari move months before anyone did, so he has some credibility to me.

Eh, do you have any source for that? I don’t recall anything like that happening. But I do remember Saari nailing Kovalainen-back-to-Caterham-this-season already in May and Red-Bull-wants-Kimi months ago.

At least Button spent his first four seasons in four different teams – Williams, Benetton, Renault and BAR – even though Benetton and Renault were basically the same team, so it probably doesn’t count. Button didn’t have a year out of Formula One though like Hülkenberg did.

That BBC article is very silly. McLaren has no negotiations with Alonso and they don’t know anything about his contractual situation yet BBC claims they are “targeting” Alonso.

Whitmarsh said pretty much the same thing about Räikkönen before his Ferrari deal was confirmed and he never actually negotiated with Räikkönen or his managers. McLaren has had poor results and Hamilton left them last season, so Whitmarsh probably just wants McLaren still to be associated with top drivers.

Back to the topic:
I think it’s more likely Alonso will gather more points during the season. He has spend the last four years at Ferrari and has been able to build the team around him. Alonso is also a lot more political driver than Kimi and Ferrari is a political team.

But who knows? As some have stated, who expected Hamilton to beat Alonso in 2007? Besides, it seems Alonso is the only one who is disturbed by the situation. Obviously Räikkönen doesn’t mind having Alonso as a team mate.

I can’t see Grosjean/Hülkenberg-pairing happening at Lotus. They’re in serious financial trouble and they’re going to be even more so if Räikkönen leaves the team, because potential sponsors will see them less appealing. According to rumours, they haven’t been able to even pay Räikkönen his salary at all this year. So in case Räikkönen leaves, I think they’ll have to take some pay driver with a proper backing.